(AP) - New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says average rates on the individual health insurance market next year will drop by 9.3 percent.
Murphy announced the development Friday. He attributed the decrease to the state's individual insurance mandate enacted this year.
It's a course change from recent years when rates in the market went up.
The state's Department of Banking and Insurance says rates went up by 23.3 percent this year in the individual market and by 8.7 percent in 2017.
The federal Affordable Care Act individual mandate was repealed as part of the GOP 2017 tax overhaul. But New Jersey's Democrat-led government enacted its own mandate in response.
New Jersey's individual health insurance market had about 330,000 people in it in the first quarter of this year.